“The World Federation of Diamond Bourses determined that synthetic or treated diamonds need to be properly identified,” said Guy D. Benhamou, CEO and managing partner at EGL Israel. “In practice, however, there are suspicions that treated diamonds are found in the trade of natural diamonds, causing damage to the reputation and credibility of the industry.”
EGL Israel, which issues about two-thirds of diamond certificates in Israel, this week launched the EGL SpectroGEM, the first innovative system available in Israel using advanced technology, which has the ability to fully identify treated and synthetic stones. Investment in the development of the new system is about $500,000.
EGL is joining the global trend aimed at boosting consumer confidence and restoring credibility to the industry by ensuring absolute differentiation between natural diamonds and synthetic or treated stones.
“Today everything is about ensuring consumer confidence. The consumer needs to be sure what kind of diamond they are buying,” said Avi Paz, president of the Israel Diamond Exchange.
Under the terms of the cooperation with EGL, the Israel Diamond Exchange will be able to use the EGL SpectroGEM to clarify cases of differences of opinion over the identification of a diamond. A natural diamond loses in value if treatments such as color or clarity enhancements are detected.
“Today we cannot operate a proper and legitimate diamond market without the usage of technology in order to differentiate,” said Benhamou. “As treated diamonds and manufactured or synthetic diamonds are becoming more and more sophisticated, we need more and more advanced technology otherwise this market will collapse.”
Use of the EGL SpectroGEM would increase volume of activity by 20 some percent, he said.
Dec 12, 2007 Jerusalem Post, Israel
By Sharon Wobel
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EGL Launches SpectroGEM Rough Analysis System (Updated)
(December 11, ‘07, 11:15 IDEX Online Staff Reporter)
European Gemological Laboratory (EGL) International recently launched the EGL SpectroGem system, which will allow it to differentiate between natural and synthetic or treated diamonds, and in which the lab invested half a million dollars.
The SpectroGEM is based on an advanced spectroscopic system that integrates technological simulation and maps the movement of light through the diamond. It also tests if the stone has passed through a HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) process making it a “treated stone.”
Results allow the lab to tell whether a diamond is natural, synthetic, or, in the case of a natural diamond, treated.
EGL CEO and owner Guy Benhamou said, “The diamond industry has always worked on a basis of trust and credibility. The instruction of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, whose agreement EGL recently received, stated that treated stones need to be suitably identified and disclosed as such.
“In practice there is a fear of treated stones leaking into the trade of natural stones. For the diamantaire and for the whole industry, whose turnover reaches $7 billion a year, we are talking about a danger of image damage,” he concluded.
Also at the press conference, Israel Diamond Exchange President Avi Paz announced that the exchange has agreed to collaborate with EGL in case of difference of opinion pertaining to the origin of a diamond – specifically whether a diamond is treated or not.
Hooooroooo from De Guru
